My People

My family tree. I look and see

My parents’ parents’ day,

The women kind, with strength of mind

Through joy, fear or dismay.

And both men, too, were just and true

With family worked and played,

All pioneers, with sweat and tears,

Who built our land today.

Then the lines next, between, betwixt,

My parents take the space,

I think of them, their diadem,

For children they embraced.

And they stood fast, good works amassed,

Their values firm in place,

Mortar and bricks, they raised we six,

With sure and steady pace.

Today, right now, I’ve turned somehow,

I see my children there,

And they have grown, and all have flown,

I can but stand and stare.

As each has wed, those paths, they’ve tread,

I, to my thoughts repair,

And think of joys, of girls and boys,

When halls weren’t still and bare.

Through pleasure, tears and creeping years,

I find a new joy comes,

And kids ‘a few’, have joined our crew

Again our hallway drums.

Programs anew and trials, a few,

Once more, I’m mopping crumbs,

With parents, fight with all our might,

So a triumph each becomes.

Far and near, both sights are clear,

Bygone. And present days.

I see past folks, those mighty oaks.

Now striplings earn my praise.

And here I stand, my life is grand,

Love’s light affects my gaze,

I can’t resist, I’m in the midst,

And looking out both ways.

Mondays do get knocked a lot,

With poetry, we three besought,

To try to make the week begin,

With gentle thoughts--perhaps a grin?

So Jenny and Delores, we,

Now post our poems for you to see.

And when you’ve read what we have brought,

Did we help? Or did we not . . .

And next week, cause it's the season, 

We tackle 'shopping' . Good-bye to reason...